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Thrugg comes in through the main door and leaves a battered and beaten tower-shield at the door. "Stay" He says lovingly to it. "Good shield"
He then removes his boulder helmet and hangs it on the handle of the war-hammer hanging from his belt. Thrugg moves to the table and sets his bag down by a chair and takes a seat, trying not to damage the chair with his plate.
If we are to wait on the Captian, she could at least set out refreshments. With that thought he pulls out his wayfinder and starts spinning around by the leather cord.
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Dressed only in shades of black and grey, a dull magma skinned half-orc, whose hood obscures most of his facial features, approaches into the room and gives a hearty, perhaps unwelcoming, grunt as he eyes and studies the place. Four daggers made of silver and cold iron hang tightly on his belt, a handy haversack on his back and a round mithral shield covers rest behind it.
Turning to the Dwarf that's made himself already comfortable in the lodge, he introduces himself bluntly, "Kelumur." before he finds his own seat in the darkness corner.
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A blonde girl with plaited hair, and armor decorated with smiling sunny faces, rushes past the open door dragging a huge, nobbly bludgeon whose size, and nobbliness is enough to give the dwarf a case of huge, nobbly bludgeon envy.
"Yeah! Thinks!" she calls out as she passes. "But you know that big marble statue of the guy who looks like that he has an upset stomach in the front hall?"
As she streaks around a corner using her earthbreaker as a rudder she shouts: "You wouldn't happen to know where the Pathfinder Society meeting is being held, would you?"
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Pausing behind Lauranna and politely waiting to enter the room a golden haired youth responds. Why right here, I hope, or I will likely be late to it. He is tall and well muscled and generally good looking. But protruding from both sides of his smiling mouth are what could only be called tusks. I am Tarragon, and U an at your service.
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"WHAT!?" **CRASH!!** **tinkle, tinkle**
The girl comes back from around the corner that mad speed, and momentum had propelled her down.
"Oh? Thanks. I'm Lauranna." Lauranna says to Tarragon affecting a sort of casual nonchalance not usually available to someone kicking bits of broken furniture out of sight.
"I think your familiar wants in."
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Kelumur responds to the new comers but doesn't sound very welcoming from his tone of voice, "If you're waiting on the Venture Captain, you're in the right place."
He glances at the window tapping but ignores the animal. "Probably some wild bird, if we let it be it'll fly off on it's own." Again, he bluntly muses.
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A tall, stern looking man appears behind both of the newcomers. He strides into the room with an air of disdain, slightly favouring one leg while, his walking cane makes a sharp rapping sound with each step. He is garbed in a rugged and worn hat, exploration outfit and greatcoat, contrasting against the elaborate and well maintained breastplate, walking cane and pistol that is partially obscured by the coat.
He eyes everyone in the room for moment before speaking ”Greetings. My name is Ravenor, a humble servant of Desna.”
As the hawk taps the window again, Ravenor irritably walks over to the window and opens it before making himself comfortable in a seat to await the Venture Captain. ”Whose familiar is that?
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The door opens, and the statuesque figure of Sheila Heidmarch sweeps into the room, followed by a servant with a tray of tea. "Welcome, Pathfinders. Thank you for coming. I have..." She pauses and looks around. "I asked for six, what is -- Oh. Of course."
She steps to the window that the hawk is sitting at, and opens it. "Please join us."
She continues, as the servant begins to serve tea to all of you.
"For the past few days, the city of Magnimar has been in the grip of terror. A murderer stalks the city’s streets in the gloaming pre-dawn hours, and each morning it seems a new and freshly mutilated victim appears in an alley. There have been four bodies discovered to date—all worshipers of the goddess of healing and redemption, Sarenrae. The city guard desperately wants to catch the murderer, yet he is a cagey and elusive foe. In order to expedite the search, they have turned to the Pathfinder Society—known allies of Magnimar and, increasingly, strong heroes in the eyes of the people—to aid them in stopping the culprit before he slays again."
She presses a button on her desk, and a bell ringing can be heard on the other side of a side door to the study. A few moments later, a short Varisian woman in the uniform of the city Guard enters.
"This is Kasadei, our contact with the Magnamarian city guard. She will be relating what they know and what plans they have, and how you will fit into them."
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As soon as the window is opened the hawk flaps into the room and onto an unoccupied chair, where its shape begins to grow and shift, until it eventually resolves into the form of a man with a great shaggy beard, and worn, rugged clothes. His outfit looks like it's seen nearly as many years hard use as the grizzled man himself, all except for the fine plumed hat perched jauntily upon his head. He nods graciously at Sheila, and says
"Familiar indeed."
He looks at the guard expectantly.
"So what can you tell us about our murderer other than his apparent grudge against the Dawnflower?"
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Kelumur mutters in responds to the introductions made, "Kelumur." and chooses for the time being not to elaborate more on his character.
As the guard makes a presence, the half-orc shifts his attention towards the conversation on the murders. "If you could be detailed in your explanations, it would be helpful in identifying how to stop the murderer. How were the victims killed? Where? Were they any witnesses?"
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"For the past few days, the city of Magnimar has been in the grip of terror. A murderer stalks the city’s streets in the gloaming pre-dawn hours, and each morning it seems a new and freshly mutilated victim appears in an alley. There have been four bodies discovered to date—all worshipers of the goddess of healing and redemption, Sarenrae."
As Heidmarch and the others speak Lauranna looks increasingly concerned, until finally she looks down at her holy symbol, smiles, and issues a sigh of relief.
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"Don't forget they were all alive too!" Lauranna says contributing to the clues. "I mean they couldn't be murdered if they were alive right? Hmm, so all we have to figure out is who would kill living people, and not just living people, but Sunnies."
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"All of the victims were travelling worshippers of Sarenrae," Kasadei answers, in a grave, husky voice. "We don't have a lot of Sarenrites in Magnimar; for some reason we've never really attracted a large, permanent community of that faith. All of the murders took place in the pre-dawn hours in alleys along the northwestern waterfront. All were in the Underbridge distrct of the city, as well."
Anyone with more than a passing familiarity with Magnimar is aware of the Underbridge, also known as the Shadow district. An ancient Thassilonian ruin known as the Irespan consists of the easternmost end of a colossal, mostly-collapsed bridge that only remains intact for a short distance overshadowing the lower portions of the city.
"Each body was stabbed multiple times by a dagger, and the hearts were cut out. None of the missing hearts have been located yet. All four were traveling worshipers of Sarenrae, but beyond that, the bodies seem to have no real connections. Interrogations using the speak with dead spell have revealed few clues, since all four victims were attacked from behind. In all four cases, the victims were taking a traditional 'dawnwalk' when they were attacked. Some of the corpses interviewed remembered noticing a sudden cessation of sound just before they were attacked, suggesting possible use of a silence spell."
She holds out a piece of paper with a drawing on it. "The most recent victim even caught a glimpse of the knife used to stab him—a dagger bearing a strange symbol of a white feather dipped in blood. None of us are familiar with that symbol. We've been looking for a scholar of religions to be able to identify it. Most of those in this city are specialized in the Empyreal Lords, whose followings are the dominant faiths here. I've heard pathfinders encounter the symbols of many evil cults in their travels -- have any of you encountered this before?"
She holds the drawn symbol out to you.
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"All of the victims were travelling worshippers of Sarenrae," Kasadei answers, in a grave, husky voice. "We don't have a lot of Sarenrites in Magnimar; for some reason we've never really attracted a large, permanent community of that faith. All of the murders took place in the pre-dawn hours in alleys along the northwestern waterfront. All were in the Underbridge distrct of the city, as well."
Anyone with more than a passing familiarity with Magnimar is aware of the Underbridge, also known as the Shadow district. An ancient Thassilonian ruin known as the Irespan consists of the easternmost end of a colossal, mostly-collapsed bridge that only remains intact for a short distance overshadowing the lower portions of the city.
"Seems kinda shady to me." says Lauranna.
Lauranna listens and goes over the evidence in her mind. She closes her eyes tightly while scrunching up her face and wishing really hard for divine inspiration.
"!!!" suddenly she opens her eyes wide in surprise. "Oh, oh, oh! I know! I know!"
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"This" she says with great flourish of a big, crude picture of the symbol she has drawn in chalk on the wall, "is the unholy symbol of Shax, the demon lord of lies, murder, and long-necked water chickens for some reason. His cultists are generally lone, deranged killers, or hedge fund investors seeking luck and glory in their deeds, or corrupt decadent nobles led through hedonism and cruelty to kidnap and torture the poor, and unfortunate like say immigrants fleeing for their lives. It's all to exact Shax's bloody chicken-headed will upon them. Chickens are a cruel people.*"
After a beat she adds: "Also, I think he's big in basketball."
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"A demon-lord of Murder, you say? Makes sense. Well, putting a stop to that will give you something to... crow about, wouldn't you say?" She gives a lopsided grin, then looks a little down when no one seems very amused by her pun.
"Well. We believe we can capture the murderer by setting an ambush to lure them out. This isn't our forte, however, so we're coming to the Pathfinder society, who are famous -- perhaps notorious -- for engaging in ingenious stratagems for achieving such ends. We've been authorized to reward you in person with a payment of 3,000 gold sails, should this be successful. Obviously, we would also allow you to keep any items of value the perpetrator is carrying, unless they are positively identified as being stolen.
"We would suggest staging the ambush early tomorrow morning. There is plenty of time for you to scout the area, do any interviews you'd like, perhaps of those living in the district, or of local worshipers of Sarenrae."
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"Yeah, I know right, but who could we get that would be stupid enough to do that?" she looks around the room. "Hey! How about that Ki Amon guy? He seems pretty gullible, and I don't know a single person who likes him. He'd be perfect for the job!"
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Ravenor nods grimly to himself at Lauranna's explanation Hmm, Lord of Lies and Murders...hedge fund managers....that makes sense
The captain's remark breaks him out of his musings, and Ravenor replies sternly "Well Captain Heidmarch, I find that it pays to not count our chickens before they hatch. Regardless, the church of Desna cannot stand by idly while our ally brethren of Sarenrae are being targeted by some madman. These financial people will go to any lengths to secure their annual targets."
He pauses for a moment as he considers the suggestions of the party at hand "Perhaps we can meet with the local church as well, and determine if there are any possible enemies that might have reason to target the faith of Sarenrae."
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Kasadei nods as you come to a consensus, and leads you through the city to the Shadows district where the murders took place. Time and traffic have resulted in the locations themselves having no further sign of the crimes committed there. The bodies of the victims, as well, were all interred, except for one whose family arranged for its return to Qadira.
However, the inhabitants of the area seem willing to talk to you. They quickly volunteer that they've noticed strange things—scratching sounds on the roof, weird flapping noises, and unnatural moments of silence.
"Aye, she nearly pissed her pants she was so scared!" the boy pipes up.
"Oooh don't you dare! Liar!" she yells at him, waving her sword. "You were ten times as afeared as I was!"
"Nuh-uh, you were a hunnded times as afeared as me!"
"Wasn't either! You were a TOUSAND times as afeared!"
"A MILLIUM!"
"A... A UMTILLION!"
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Cott proceeds with the team, and tries talking to the locals to see if he can find out anything useful.
But he doesn't hear much besides general reports of strange noises.
"Flapping, scratching, and strange silences. Something with wings and claws...but dexterous and sentient enough to use a dagger and cut out the hearts of its victims."